Give Us Today - 3

Give Us Today - 3

Subject – Being Ambidextrous 

By Rick Welborne

Matthew 6:9-15 (NLT2)
⁹  Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
¹⁰  May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
¹¹  Give us today the food we need,
¹²  and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
¹³  And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.
¹⁴  “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.
¹⁵  But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. 

1 Chronicles 12:1-2 (NKJV)
¹  Now these were the men who came to David at Ziklag while he was still a fugitive from Saul the son of Kish; and they were among the mighty men, helpers in the war,
²  armed with bows, using both the right hand and the left in hurling stones and shooting arrows with the bow. They were of Benjamin, Saul's brethren. 

--This week we hopefully are moving on from our past and are straining forward to become all God wants us to be. We are developing more and more each day. Lord, give me today. 

--In our text we read about men who were Benjamites. There were several famous people from the tribe of Benjamin…King Saul, the Apostle Paul, Esther’s cousin Mordecai, and their most famous hero Ehud.

Judges 3:15 (NKJV)
¹⁵  But when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. 

--Ehud’s victory possibly set the stage for the Benjamites becoming great warriors. Every move we make, every risk we take, sets the stage for someone else.

Batterson – Your brave is someone else’s breakthrough. We think right here, right now. God is thinking nations and generations. We think what God does for us is for us, but it’s never just for us. It’s always for third and fourth generations. When we win the day, in our own unique way we enable future generations to dream a little bigger and think a little longer. 

1. Be Deliberate in Developing Your Skills.

1 Chronicles 12:1-2 (NLT2)
¹  The following men joined David at Ziklag while he was hiding from Saul son of Kish. They were among the warriors who fought beside David in battle.
²  All of them were expert archers, and they could shoot arrows or sling stones with their left hand as well as their right. They were all relatives of Saul from the tribe of Benjamin. 

--We can assume that these men of Benjamin were not born with this skill set of using both the right hand and the left sense only about one percent of the population is born ambidextrous. 

--So how did these men of Benjamin develop this unusual skill of using both hands for battle? To become an expert archer or rock slinger takes lots of practice. 

--It is not only the 10,000-hour rule of doing something over and over. How many of you know you can practice the right thing the wrong way? It’s counterproductive. Ander’s Ericsson says we have deliberate practice. 

--Three dimensions of Deliberate Practice according to Ericsson:

First Dimension - Well defined goals. These allow you to measure progress and provide a means of feedback. 

Second Dimension – Reverse engineering. It is studying the best practice of others, then adopting them and adapting them to your unique situation. It takes diligence and determination to get better.

Third Dimension – Effort. Deliberate practice requires maximum effort, which is neither fun nor easy. When you are training your body, you have to stress it beyond its natural ability. 

--The Benjamites may have been the first to truly use the Cross-fit training method. It took many years and lots of blisters to get where they were awesomely ambidextrous. 

Ericsson – There is no point at which performance maxes out and additional practice does not lead to further improvement. Keep practicing till the day you die. That is what winning the day is all about.

2. Ehud’s Victory Became the Tribe of Benjamin’s Story. 

Judges 3:15 (NKJV)
¹⁵  But when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. 

--Remember the quote from Batterson. Your brave is someone else’s breakthrough. Ehud was one of the most significant southpaws in the Bible. So what does that have to do with the Benjamites being ambidextrous? 

--Whether we understand it or not we are all born into someone else’s story. Ehud’s left handed victory became, for the tribe of Benjamin, their signature story.

--The Benjamites cultivating right and left hand skills in battle, was a way of honoring Ehud, and his deliverance for Israel. Becoming ambidextrous was a way of tipping their hat (or helmet) to their national hero. 

--Most of us ignore our non-dominant hands. Why bother when it is so much easier to use our strong hand and it is so much better. How we handle our weak hand affects so much in our lives. 

--When I played basketball, developing my left hand was so important. Looking back after evaluating the great basketball players, I wish I would have spent more time training myself with my left hand.

--Ehud didn’t just provide a victory for the nation of Israel but he inspired other generations to develop skills that were not natural to them and to rack up more wins for Israel.

--His brave in winning the victory was not just their breakthrough, it became their inspiration. Everything we do, we should be thinking future generations.

Batterson – God wants to use you at your point of greatest giftedness. That’s a given. He is the One Who gave you those gifts in the first place. But God wants to also use you at your point of greatest weakness. Why? Because that is when His power is made perfect. That is where we provide double trouble for the enemy.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV)
⁹  But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
¹⁰  That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

3. Connect the Dots.

--There is probably no phrase used more than “David verses Goliath.” It is one of the greatest mismatches and obviously the underdog story that everyone knows. 

--We have the tendency to read stories the wrong way, we always think David had the disadvantage. If it was hand to hand combat, yes. There is no way David could win that fight. But David had an advantage.

--Eitan Hirsch, a ballistics expert with the Israeli Defense Forces says that an average sized stone slung by an expert could travel the length of a football field in three seconds flat. 

--He said at that velocity, it would have the same stopping power as a .45 caliber hand gun. Goliath had a huge spear with its tip weighing 15 pounds. That’s impressive but Goliath brought a knife to a gunfight.

--Think about this, David was not the underdog, Goliath was a sitting duck, and a really big one at that. The irony is that no one saw David’s potential in this battle. 

--When Samuel came to anoint the next King of Israel, David was left in the field with the sheep. Talk about being hurt by your father. Then when David volunteered to fight Goliath, Saul belittled him.

1 Samuel 17:33 (NIV)
³³  Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth." 

--When David was being forgotten as he tended his father’s sheep, God was cultivating a skill set in David that would catapult him into the national stage. God is doing the same in your life today if you allow Him.

1 Samuel 17:37 (NIV)
³⁷  The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you." 

--When it seemed like God had forgotten David, God was preparing him for something bigger than he could ever imagine. This is important…David was willing to look foolish going up against a giant.

--This is how our brave can be someone’s breakthrough. David had to just win the day to change his life and other’s too. There is a final irony to this incredible story:

--Saul was a Benjamite. If anyone should have fought Goliath, it should have been him. He was head and shoulders taller than anyone else. He was a big boy. David connected the dots with God, Saul didn’t.

--The lions and bears look different in each of our lives but the truth is, God is getting us ready to face the giants. Everything in your past is preparation for something in your future. 

--It’s the Goliath in front of us that helps us discover the David within us. Keep winning the day and the giants will fall.

--Remember what we all said as kids…the bigger they are the harder they fall. Win the day! Give us today!